Steve Larrick

The Lincoln Journal-Star reports that the Nebraska Green Party is co-sponsoring a public forum on Wednesday 5 May in opposition to the proposed Haymarket arena in Lincoln. Steve Larrick, the Nebraska Green Party’s 2008 US Senate candidate and community activist, will give a presentation.

Rebekah Kennedy, running for U.S. Senate in a head to head race against conservative Democrat Mark Pryor in Arkansas, took in 206,504 votes for 20.54% of the vote. This is the highest percent vote return of any Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate ever. Furthermore, 206,504 votes is the second most number of votes won by a Green Party U.S. Senate candidate ever, second only to Medea Benjamin’s 2000 Senate race in California (326,828). For a brief history of Green U.S. Senate candidates click here.

In Illinois, Kathy Cummings pulled in 115,621 votes for 2.56%, the fifth highest number of votes for a Green Senate candidate.

In Colorado, Bob Kinsey won 46,014 votes for 2.13%.

In Michigan, Harvey Mikkelson won 44,439 votes for 0.92%.

In Washington D.C., Keith Ware’s 14,602 votes netted him 7.45%, which puts him in the top 10 highest vote percents for Green Senate candidates.

Chris Lugo in Tennessee took 9,103 votes for 0.38&, and Steve Larrick in Nebraska took in 7,235 votes for 0.95%.

All told, these seven candidates won 443,518 votes, the most votes for a Green Party slate of candidates since the 2000 election, when Medea Benjamin and 9 other candidates brought in over 700,000 votes. This should be seen as a good sign for the Green Party.

Cummings is running against Richard Durbin because “in 2002 he knew Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. He kept that information from the public. He allowed Bush to fool the American people into starting an unjustified war. You can see Durbin confess to this on YouTube. See his ‘Bombshell announcement’ on my website. He kept quiet for five years because he claims he was sworn to secrecy by the Senate Intelligence Committee! By doing so, he showed his loyalty was with a dishonest regime and not with the People.” Cummings is a Peace candidate who supports the oath of office to uphold the constitution, provide health care to all people and create an ecologically sustainable country.

Kennedy is a lawyer who has proudly worked in the areas of civil rights and on behalf of victims of workplace discrimination. She previously ran for the office of Arkansas Attorney General and received 4.67% of the vote. She is motivated by the fact that not one Democrat or Republican was willing to run against an incumbent in federal races. Kennedy is challenging Mark Pryor, motivated to run due to Pryor’s many votes in opposition to the people of Arkansas. She currently serves as Elections Co-chair for the Green Party of Arkansas, a position she also held from 2002-2007. Fromm 2007-08 Kennedy served as Public Relations Co-chair. Her reasons for running include challenging Pryor’s votes to continue support for the occupation of Iraq and the Military Commissions Act. Kennedy calls for the U.S. to take the lead in stopping global warming and to create a national health care system.

Kinsey is a retired United Church of Christ minister, history teacher, and a veteran of the Marine Corps. His son-in-law is currently serving in Iraq. Kinsey sums up his campaign with the phrase “Respect Life!” This means government must set policies to insure life into the future. The current economic system, run by uncontrolled growth, “is the ideology of a cancer cell.” “We have to redirect our economics to avoid the tipping point” of environmental catastrophe. He supports building sustainable infrastructure, tax incentives for wind power, organic agriculture, safe ranching practices, and mass transit. Kinsey connects his support of the Ten Key Principles to his values as a minister. “The Green Party values are a good secular representation of what Jesus called ‘the Kingdom of God.'”

Larrick is running against Ben Nelson, considered the most conservative Democrat in the Senate. On his website, Larrick discusseshis policies for ending the occupation of Iraq, providing health care to all Americans, solving America’s economic problems, reducing dependence on foreign oil and protecting civil liberties.

Lugo is running against Republican Lamar Alexander. For the past five years he has worked as a peace activist with state wide coalitions to end the war in Iraq. This activism will be helpful in getting out the anti-war message, which is at the core of his campaign. Having worked for the past ten years with a range of progressive coalitions in Nashville and across the country has given Lugo a sense of what issues are important at the Federal level. Lugo entered the U.S. Senate race “to be a voice for the progressive issues that need to be discussed in Tennessee – ending the war, bringing health care to every citizen, abolishing our nuclear weapons stockpile, addressing issues of racial justice in the South, media democracy, election reform, international peace, and publicly funded campaigns.”

Mikkelson is a Vietnam veteran, a union member and an active Green Party member since 2002. He ran for Congress in 2002 opposed to starting a war in Iraq. In 2004 he ran calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He has been in the Peace Movement since becoming active in Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1968. His campaign focus is to bring U.S. troops home immediately. In addition, Mikkelson would campaign for Fair Trade, in order to bring back jobs to the United States, and would stress the need to provide more educational opportunities and health benefits for everyone.

Keith Ware – District of Columbia
(no description in Green Pages – the following is from multiple sources) Keith Ware is a community, environmental and human rights activist in DC, and owner and operator of Nature Green, an Eco-store in downtown DC. “As a fourth-generation Washingtonian, as well as a father, business owner and community activist, I understand the District’s needs and will be the people’s voice.” “The fact that Washington residents have no federal representation violates their basic rights as U.S. citizens. This is an issue close to my heart as well as the hearts of all Washingtonians.”

In 1992, Linda Martin and Mary Jordan became the first Green Party candidates for U.S. Senate.

Mary Jordan ran for U.S. Senate in Alaska, receiving over 20,000 votes, 8.37% of the total vote in a three way race against the infamous Frank Murkowski. Linda Martin ran for U.S. Senate in Hawai’i against an entrenched Democratic Party in 1992 against Daniel Inouye, who had been in the Senate since 1962, and who handedly defeated his opponents winning over 70% of the vote in every re-election – that is until 1992. Linda Martin earned 49,921 votes, 13.73%, holding Inouye to 57.3%, while the Republican picked up 26.9%. Her race changed Hawai’i politics, and Green Party politics, setting records for both total votes and percent of votes by a Green in a partisan race. In this video, Mike Feinstein interviews Linda Martin in 2003 about her campaign.

Two years later, Barbara Blong picked up 140,567 votes running for U.S. Senate in California. In the 1990s, Greens ran for U.S. Senate in Alaska (twice), Hawai’i, California, Maine, Oregon (twice), New Mexico, and New York.

Green Party Watch uses a “spam catcher” to…well…catch spam. The filter has caught a lot of spam, which is good, but an occasional non-spam post gets caught up in the works. If you have posted a comment and don’t see it, please drop us a note so we will know to look for and release the comment.

Now, on to the news!

Steve Larrick, Green Party candidate for US Senate from Nebraska, got some coverage for his visit to the Nebraska State Fair. While there he debated the Democratic and Republican nominee , and was interrupted by a marching band. And you thought ballot access was our only hurdle!

Whitewater Community TV will broadcast portions of the Democratic, Republican and Green Party national conventions. The Indiana based broadcaster will reportedly broadcast McKinney’s acceptance speech and press conference.

Bunches of media outlets have gotten it wrong. They posted articles explaining that Ralph Nader had submitted signatures to place his name on the ballot as the Green Party nominee. An example of this screw-up is here. One can only hope that tomorrow’s news will tell the truth, that Cynthia McKinney is the Green Party nominee.

The Jackson Sun reports on Cynthia McKinney’s visit to Jackson TN, as well as other stops in Western TN. McKinney said

“We are kick-starting a movement so that our values can be reflected in public policy.”

Former Green Party vice-presidential nominee Pat LaMarche has resigned her position as spokesperson for a casino proposed in Maine. A FOX News affiliate in that state posted a brief video in which the reporter explains the reasons LaMarche resigned her post.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, some Democrats in that state have started a political action committee to bring the Green nominee for Public Relations Committee some cash, and at least a little bit of news coverage. Apparently some Democrats believe that Rick Lass would be a better public servant than the Democratic nominee.

Lass will get $64,000 in public financing for the campaign, but some Democrats feel so strongly about Lass that they have already held meetings to turn out support for him in November.

Finally, Eugene Platt Green Party nominee for the 115th House District in the South Carolina State Legislature, got some coverage in that city’s free weekly. Platt found out today that the South Carolina Democratic Party has filed to intervene in his federal ballot access case. Represented by the ACLU, Platt and supporters in Charleston held the first of what will be many re-organizing meetings in the South Carolina Lowcountry this past Saturday.

It looks like the protest that the Nebraska Green Party staged outside the Senate Debate between the Dem and Rep candidates earlier this month may have paid off. KMEG is reporting that the Greens Steve Larrick will be invited to participate in the August 13 State Fair Debate:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – The Nebraska Green Party’s Senate candidate has been invited to two candidate events after being excluded from a debate earlier this month.

Steve Larrick says he’ll participate in the State Fair debate on Aug. 13 and in a meet-the-candidates event in Hastings on Aug. 12.

About a dozen members of the party protested outside when Republican Mike Johanns and Democrat Scott Kleeb debated June 5 in Lincoln.

Larrick says the Green Party is a legal party in the state. He had said the party would consider legal action if it were excluded from future debates.

Also running is Nebraska Party candidate Kelly Renee Rosberg. They’re vying to replace Republican Chuck Hagel, who isn’t seeking a third term.

Steve Larrick, the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from Nebraska, wasn’t allowed in last night’s candidate debate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The debate was sponsored by the American Legion Cornhusker Boys State as part of a week long government leadership program for 400 high school boys. Larrick and other Green Party members protested outside the debate hall. He is considering taking his protests to court.

Steve Larrick became the first Nebraska Green Party member to win an elected office when he garnered over 55% of the vote for the Lincoln area’s Natural Resources District in 2002. He was reelected in 2006. In 2004, Larrick ran in Nebraska’s 1st congressional district and received 3% of the vote. In 2006, he ran for state auditor and received 16147 votes, 3%. Today, Larrick is continuing his bike tour across the state on Nebraska Trails to promote alternative energy and transportation, peace, a more sustainable world and his US Senate campaign.

Steve Larrick is on the ballot in Nebraska’s Senatorial campaign, but apparently that is not enough for the fine folks at the American Legion Boys State in Lincoln. In a city named after a third party candidate, the American Legion is telling two qualified candidates to bug off. Larrick and the nominee of the Nebraska Party have both been refused admission to the debate.

The Nebraska Green Party is planning a protest, and there is something you can do even if you don’t live near Lincoln.

Anyone who might care to do so can contact the debate organizer, Mr. Zabawa by writing azabawa @ lps.org. The fine folks at Boys State can be reached via telephone at 402-464-6338 and their fax number is 402-464-6330. The good people at University of Nebraska – Lincoln Public Relations office can be reached at 402-472-2211. They might also be happy to hear from you at unlpr2 @ unl.edu

LARRICK TOURS NEBRASKA ON BIKE TRAILS . . .Friday, May 23, 2008, US Senate candidate Steve Larrick started a bike tour across the state on Nebraska Bike Trails. Leaving from the Wyoming border, he crossed northern Nebraska from Valentine to Norfolk on the Cowboy Trail to promote alternative energy and transportation, peace, and a more sustainable world. To join the last day of Larrick’s bike tour from Lincoln to Omaha on Saturday May 31, e-mail Steve at slarrick1 at msn dot com or phone 402.435.5612.